Easter in New Zealand

For many of us the best part of Easter, aside from scoffing hot cross buns smeared in warm butter and gorging on delicious chocolate bunnies, is the two public holidays that frame the weekend. For those of you currently travelling, we’ve put together a list of what you need to know for the upcoming long weekend…

Being a religious holiday, most shops must close for trading on the Friday and Sunday and some will have limited hours of trading on the Monday. This means you will need to plan ahead in terms of eating/drinking, but on the plus most activity operators stay open for business. Your Stray driver can advise of the best places to food shop depending on where you are along the route.

Toast up a Hot Cross Bun and chow down on chocolate!

It’s estimated that New Zealanders will eat 11 million hot cross buns over Easter. These sweet, spicy buns which are typically packed with currents and raisins (although fruit-free chocolate variations are also available) are intended to be eaten on Friday to acknowledge the day Christ was put on the cross. However, Kiwis tend to binge on these buns for several weeks in the lead up to Easter. The best way to eat Hot Cross Buns is to cut them in half, toast them up in the oven and smother them in butter. Yum!

If chocolate is your thing, the good news is we Kiwis eat a lot of that too. Popular choices readily available in New Zealand supermarkets are Lindt Bunnies, Cadbury Creme Eggs, Cuties (small chocolate nuggets filled with caramel) and of course the classic marshmallow eggs.

Daylight Saving Time

The mornings are about to get lighter! On Sunday 1st April, our clocks will roll back 1 hour making the evenings a little darker and the mornings a little lighter – keep this in mind so you don’t miss any of your scheduled buses! You can expect the sun to rise at around 6.40am and set around 6.10pm during April as we move into autumn.

Check out some other cool events happening this April

There will be Easter Egg Hunts and various Easter themed events hosted all over the country so if this kind of thing floats your boat, then find out what’s going on near you!